WJPA Sports

Basketball moves into the second half if its regular season, though teams in sections with fewer than seven teams won’t return to conference games until next week. While Thursday is traditionally a girls night, there are a couple boys section games on the schedule. And, by the same token, while Friday is usually boys night, at least one girls game is on the docket as part of a girls/boys doubleheader. Here’s the Thursday section schedule for Washington/Greene County teams.

Boys
6A Canon-McMillan at Imani Christian
1A Avella at Summit Academy

Girls
5A Peters Township at Thomas Jefferson
4A Ringgold at Belle Vernon
3A Charleroi at Wash High
3A Brownsville at Waynesburg
1A Avella at Mapletown
1A West Greene at Geibel Catholic

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Federal prosecutors are charging 20 people, including 15 former college basketball players, in what they call a scheme to rig NCAA and Chinese Basketball Association games. Of the defendants named in Thursday’s indictment, 15 played basketball for Division 1 NCAA schools as recently as the 2024-25 season. The other five defendants were described by authorities as fixers. The charges, filed in federal court in Philadelphia, include wire fraud. In the 70-page indictment, authorities say the fixers recruited the college basketball players with “bribe payments” usually ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 per game. Among those named in the indictment was Shane Hennen, a former Washington High School basketball player and graduate.  He was previously named in connection with rigging bets on NBA games.  The indictment follows NCAA investigations that led to at least 10 players receiving lifetime bans.

Wrestling squads are nearing the end of their dual meet campaigns, at least as far as matches that count toward WPIAL/PIAA Team Tournament qualifying. The top two teams in each section will qualify for the WPIAL Team Tournaments along with two wild cards in each classification. Those tournament brackets will be announced on Thursday, Jan. 22, the day after the final matches. Here’s a look at Wednesday’s results involving Washington/Greene County teams (section records).

Wednesday, Jan. 14
3A Trinity 51, Waynesburg 12
3A Ringgold 45, West Mifflin 24
2A McGuffey 51, West Greene 15
2A Chartiers-Houston 48, Wash High 27
2A Jeff-Morgan 42, Beth-Center 31
2A Bentworth 47, Brownsville 24

3A Section 2 Trinity (3-0) clinched a tournament berth with the win at Waynesburg (1-2). Canon-McMillan (3-0) also clinched with Trinity’s win. The Hillers host the Big Macs next Wednesday for the section title and, likely, hosting rights for the first round/quarterfinals. We’ll have that match live on WJPA-AM (1450) and online.

3A Section 3 Peters Township (2-1)  is off this week, then visits Mt. Lebanon (2-0) to close the dual meet season. The winner of that matches clinches a berth. If Mt. Lebanon wins, the Blue Devils are section champs. If Peters Township wins, the Indians are second behind Baldwin.

3A Section 7 Ringgold (2-1) will host Belle Vernon (2-1) next week with the winner taking the second berth behind Thomas Jefferson.

2A Section 1 Chartiers-Houston (2-0) and McGuffey (2-0) clinched with wins. The two meet in Meadowlands next Wednesday for the section title.

2A Section 2 Burgettstown (2-0) and Avella (1-1) are both off this week. The Blue Devils clinch with a win against Hopewell, with a loss to the Vikings while winning at least 5 bouts, or with an Avella loss to South Side. Avella clinches with a win next week at South Side if Burgettstown wins or loses to Hopewell while winning at least 5 bouts.

2A Section 3 Jeff-Morgan (3-0) clinched a berth and at least a share of the section title with the win over Beth-Center (2-1). Bentworth (2-1) beat Brownsville (1-3). Bentworth hosts Beth-Center next Wednesday with the winner clinching an automatic berth.

ATLANTA (AP) — Brandin Cummings scored 23 points and Barry Dunning Jr. added 17 for Pittsburgh in an 89-66 win over Georgia Tech on Wednesday night, snapping a three-game losing streak.  Nojus Indrusaitis put up 16 points off the bench for the Panthers (8-9, 1-3 Atlantic Coast Conference), tying a career and season high on 5-of-9 shooting (4 of 6 from 3-point range). Cameron Corhen added 15 points and Roman Siulepa scored 11 and added eight rebounds in the Panthers’ first conference win of the season.  Pitt shot 53% from the field (34 of 64) compared to Georgia Tech’s 40% (24 of 60). The Panthers sank 11 shots from 3-point range.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh Steelers president Art Rooney II says he wasn’t shocked by coach Mike Tomlin’s decision to step down after 19 seasons. Rooney described Tomlin’s choice as more “family-related” than “football-related.” Tomlin’s departure means the Steelers are searching for just their fourth head coach since 1969. Rooney declined to get into specifics about what the team might be looking for, though each of Pittsburgh’s past three coaches arrived as relative unknowns before taking the Steelers to the Super Bowl multiple times. Tomlin’s departure figures to signal the end of quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ time with the club. Rooney says Rodgers’ decision to play in Pittsburgh was primarily to play for Tomlin.